‘Great day’ does not advance Mattawan

Dean Holzwarth
| Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette February 28, 2009

CALEDONIA — Mattawan competitive cheer coach
Nichole Cerutti exuberantly rushed over to her team
following its third-round cheer at Saturday's Division 2 regional.

It was a satisfying
finish to a season that ultimately ended after the Wildcats failed to finish
among the top four teams at Caledonia High School.

Mattawan placed eighth
among the 12 teams competing with a three-round total of 725.738. Portage
Northern finished 11th with a score of 685.28.

Mount
Pleasant (764.743) won the regional crown, and Grand Rapids
Christian (744.768) took second.

"They did a great
job in Round 3 and it's a very strong round for them," Cerutti said. "They scored over 300, which is phenomenal, and it was a great day for them."

The Wildcats closed with
a final-round score of 303.7. Senior Hayley Cavanaugh said it was the perfect
way to end her high school career.

"It was good to get
to regionals, and in every round we tried to set
the pace and do well," she said. "I think our Round 3 excelled over
all the other rounds and it was a good way to finish."

After winning a district
crown last weekend, the Wildcats were hoping for a return to the state
finals. They've qualified twice in the program's history, the last coming in
2007.

But with several strong
teams taking the mat, Cerutti knew it would take a
superb effort to move on.

"I think every good
program wants to win districts, win regionals and
go to state," Cerutti said. "We came out
strong, but some teams were a little bit stronger."

Despite not extending its
season, Mattawan improved as the season progressed.

"My expectations at
every competition are just to improve our scores," Cerutti
said. "We went in with that mentality every week. They did that
phenomenally last week in winning our district and I thought they did another
great job. They scored very well and I have nothing to be disappointed
in."

Portage Northern coach
Heather Prentice was equally pleased with her team's regional effort.

The Huskies also finished
well in Round 3, posting a score of 292.2.

"It was a great day
and I was very happy with Round 3," Prentice said. "Round 2 was a
little off, Round 1 was nice, and Round 3 was very solid."

Portage Northern advanced
to regionals by placing runner-up behind Mattawan
at districts.

"I knew it was going
to be hard to make it out, and it shows how much the sport is growing and how
the level of competition is getting harder and harder," Prentice said.

"We almost hit 700,
which is a decent score, and to be in the bottom two just shows you how good
the competition was here today."

DIVISION 3 AT
COOPERSVILLE:
Otsego finished fifth in the Coopersville regional, despite totaling a
season-best 739.3 points. Comstock Park, the defending state runner-up
last season, won the regional.

"The girls did
phenomenal," Otsego coach Nicole Durr said.
"It was a tough region. They did a really great job.

"Comstock Park broke 800 (points)
today, which is not easy to do. They have 16 girls on the mat, their
jumps are phenomenal, gymnastics in Round 2 were
great.

"All three of our
rounds were great. The girls couldn't have done more."

DIVISION 4 AT SPARTA: Colon finished in second place
(698.0136 points) in the Sparta regional, meaning the Magi
advance to next Saturday's state finals at the Delta Plex
in Grand Rapids. Manistique won the regional. Gobles, Schoolcraft
and Bloomingdale finished sixth, seventh and 11th, respectively.

"We're excited to
advance, although we had hoped to win the region," Colon coach Jayne Sabaitis
said. "We know there's going to be several other tough teams from the
region at states. We still hope to do well at states."

Said Gobles coach Melissa
Ross: "We had a good day, but had a few weak points. We had some errors
in the second round that cost us a few points. ... We had a lot of new girls
on the team this year and we really hit our peak at the end of the season. I
don't regret anything."